BBC ON THIS DAY | 19 | 1982: 'God's banker' found hanged 1982: 'God's banker' found hanged The body of a top Italian banker has been found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. Known as God's banker for his links with the Vatican, 62-year-old Roberto Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano in Milan and a central figure in a complex web of international fraud and intrigue. He had been missing for the last nine days before his body was discovered by a passer-by hanging from scaffolding on a riverside walk under the bridge. Police are treating the death as suicide. Jail sentence Mr Calvi became chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, now Italy's largest private bank, in 1975 and built up a vast financial empire. In 1978, a report by the Bank of Italy on Ambrosiano concluded that several billion lire had been illegally exported. In May 1981, Mr Calvi was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but released pending an appeal. During his short spell in jail he attempted suicide.

Mr Calvi was due to appear in an Italian court next week to appeal against this conviction. Later this month he was to be tried for alleged fraud involving property deals with Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, who is himself serving 25 years in America over the collapse of the Franklin National Bank in New York in 1974. The Vatican is directly linked to Mr Calvi by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the Pope's bodyguard, a governor of the Vatican and head of the Vatican bank which has a shareholding in Ambrosiano. Missing millions Now Ambrosiano is on the verge of collapse amid press reports that investigators found a �400m "hole" in its accounts. Last week the bank's executive board decided to strip Mr Calvi of his authority. The Italian Treasury dissolved the bank's administration and the Bank of Italy is now a temporary commissioner. Mr Calvi fled to Venice nine days ago after shaving his moustache to avoid being recognised. From there it seems he hired a private plane to take him to London. The day before he was found dead, his secretary committed suicide in Milan by jumping off the fourth floor of the bank's headquarters.

Teresa Corrocher, aged 55, left an angry suicide note condemning her boss for the damage she said he had done to Ambrosiano and its employees. ITALY'S MYSTERIOUS, DEEPENING BANK SCANDAL - NYTimes.com ITALY'S MYSTERIOUS, DEEPENING BANK SCANDAL By PAUL LEWIS, Special to the New York Times Published: July 28, 1982 ROME, July 27— The apparent suicide last month of an Italian financier known as ''God's banker,'' who was found hanged beneath London's Blackfriars Bridge, has added to the mystery of a major Italian financial scandal in which the Vatican appears heavily involved. The cost to the Roman Catholic Church could amount to several hundred million dollars. The scandal centers on some $1.4 billion in unsecured loans made in Latin America by Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest privately owned banking group, and endorsed by the Vatican bank. It is sending shock waves through the world of international finance and raising questions about current efforts to regulate the foreign operations of multinational banks. Unusual Outside Inquiry It has also strained Italy's relations with the Vatican, an autonomous governing unit in Rome.

Under pressure from the Italian Government and concerned church leaders, Pope John Paul II has ordered an unusual outside investigation into the Vatican's finances by three Roman Catholic lay bankers. But the Italian Government wants the Vatican to accept a measure of financial responsibility for Ambrosiano's expected losses. As usual in such scandals in Italy, there are also unverifiable reports that organized-crime figures and a recently discovered, anti-Government secret Masonic lodge are somehow involved. There are also reports that Banco Ambrosiano may have been a target of the British secret service, which is said to suspect it of financing Argentine arms purchases during the war over the Falkland Islands. The Bank of Italy first became suspicious about Banco Ambrosiano in 1978 during a general crackdown on bank fraud, but immediately ran into a heavy political opposition. Paulo Baffi, then the governor of the central bank, was arrested and eased out of his job. Mario Sarcinelli, the central bank's chief bank regulator, was imprisoned for a while, but now has reclaimed a place in the Government as the chief civil servant in the Finance Ministry, helping to coordinate Treasury and central bank policies. It was Mr.

Baffi's successor, Carlo Ciampi, who finally suceeded in bringing the Ambrosiano scandal out into the open in what is widely perceived in Rome as a triumph for the Bank of Italy's political independence. The hanged banker was Roberto Calvi, 61 years old. He had joined Milan's Banco Ambrosiano as a clerk, worked his way up to become its president and, along the way, through a series of spectacular deals, transformed what had been a modest regional bank into a major financial power, with assets of $18.7 billion in 1981. Mr. Calvi, who was appealing a four-year jail sentence for illegal currency dealings, disappeared from his Rome apartment on June 10, after failing to block an inquiry by the Italian central bank into some $1.4 billion of loans that banks he controlled had made to obscure companies, most of them Panamanian. Five days after he vanished, his secretary jumped to her death from a window of the Milan bank. Mr. Calvi's body was found on June 18. Collapse of an Empire The financial panic caused by news of Mr. Calvi's death and the Bank of Italy's investigation provoked the collapse of his financial empire.

Shares of companies his group had interests in fell 30 and 40 percent on the Milan stock exchange. After depositors rushed to withdraw their funds, Banco Ambrosiano itself had to be bailed out by a consourtium of six major Italian banks hurriedly put together by the Bank of Italy. Earlier this month, Banco Ambrosiano Holdings S.A., a Luxembourg subsidiary two-thirds of which is owned by Banco Ambrosiano, defaulted on some $400 million of foreign loans it had received . It is now in receivership. The Bank of Italy has scheduled a meeting of Ambrosiano creditors in London on Thursday . Last week, banking authorities in the Bahamas suspended for 30 days the license of Ambrosiano's Bahamas operation, Banco Ambrosiano Overseas Ltd., in order to ''restore satisfactory liquidity to its operations,'' the Bahamian central bank said. ''The Ambrosiano affair makes everyone wonder about the Vatican's finances, but it really illustrates the fragility of the international banking system that we are all trying to preserve,'' said Guido Carli, a former governor of the Bank of Italy and now a prominent industrialist.

''It's partly the normal pathology of finance - a failure of controls,'' said Luigi Sparventa, an independent Italian parliamentarian and economics professor. ''But Calvi's death - that suggests more sinister forces,'' he added. Earlier this year, Carlo de Beneditti, head of Olivetti, the big Italian office machinery manufacturer and one of the country's leading businessmen, bought a significant stake in Banco Ambrosiano but sold it again within a few months saying that he was ''appalled'' by what he had found. Close Vatican Ties According to senior officials investigating the scandal who do not wish to be identified, the Banco Ambrosiano affair centers on the close but ambiguious relationship between Mr. Calvi and Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus, a 60-year-old native of Cicero, Ill., who for the last 10 years has run the Vatican's free-wheeling but extremely secretive bank. The bank's formal name is Instituto per le Opere de Religione, the Institute for Religious Works, and it is commonly referred to as I.O.R. 1 Why I'm sure the Mafiosi who hanged my father from Blackfriars Bridge are still at large...

in London | Daily Mail Online Why I'm sure the Mafiosi who hanged my father from Blackfriars Bridge are still at large... in London Son of 'God's banker' Roberto Calvi talks 30 years after father's death Carlo Calvi, 58, has spent £15million conducting his own investigation comments It was a very public death. In the grey light of dawn, the body of a man was found hanging from scaffolding underneath Blackfriars Bridge in Central London, his feet dangling in the water. He was wearing an expensive Italian suit and his pockets were weighted with bricks and stuffed with cash. Family moment: Italian financier Roberto Calvi (right) and his son Carlo in a picture taken by Carlo's sister Anna in 1982, the year Roberto was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London Initially police believed that Italian financier Roberto Calvi, known as ‘God’s banker’ because of his close financial ties with the Vatican, had committed suicide. But the dead man’s son, Carlo Calvi, commissioned an independent forensic report, which concluded in October 2002 that he had been murdered.

In 2005, Italian prosecutors brought murder charges against five suspects but all were acquitted after the subsequent trial in Rome. Now, 30 years after his father was found dead, Carlo remains convinced that he was murdered and wants police to reopen the case. Carlo believes that up to a dozen men from the Italian underworld were involved in the murder – and claims many are still at large in London. ‘A long time has passed since my father’s murder on June 18, 1982,’ he said. ‘It is not unrealistic to believe that there are individuals involved in his death still alive. I want the City of London Police to pursue these individuals and put them where they belong. It is a matter of public interest. These people are still operating in London. We should all know who they are and what they are doing.’ 'Crime scene': The jury at the second inquest in 1983 visit the spot where Calvi was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge Carlo, aged 58 and himself a former banker, has dedicated his life to seeking justice for his father, who was the chairman of Italy’s second-largest bank, Banco Ambrosiano.

The bank subsequently collapsed with debts of half a billion pounds amid dark rumours of laundered Mafia drug money, a link with the clandestine ‘P2’ Masonic lodge and secret political slush funds. Now living in Montreal, Canada, Carlo spends his time travelling between his home and London, New York and Milan – sifting through evidence, meeting secretive contacts willing to talk about Italian organised crime and poring over the transcripts of Mafia trials. His obsession with finding the men involved in his father’s murder has come at a price – both financial and personal. He has spent £15 million on fees for lawyers, private detectives and other experts in an attempt to identify the guilty. And his marriage to Marie Josee, mother of his two sons, Roberto, 18, and Nicola, 16, broke up in 2000. He has also not seen his sister Anna, 55, a lecturer at Warwick University, since their mother’s death from Parkinson’s disease in 2006. ‘There’s no doubt I have fixated on the case,’ he said. ‘I’m sure that played a part in my divorce and it has affected my relationship with my sister.

She doesn’t necessarily agree with the things I have done.’ Call to re-open case: Carlo believes up to a dozen men from the Italian underworld were involved in the murder of his father (pictured) and claims many are still at large in London Carlo was a 28-year-old post-graduate student at Washington’s Georgetown University when he recieved the telephone call that would change his life. His mother Clara, then 60, and sister Anna, 25, were staying with him in Washington, having been warned by his father that their lives were in danger. ‘My mother had been living with me in America for about six weeks because my father feared for her safety,’ he recalled. ‘My sister arrived the day before he died. We were awoken by the telephone in the middle of the night when my uncle Luciano, my mother’s brother, called from Bologna to say that he had heard the news on the radio. ‘He spoke to my mother who had a complete breakdown. She was devastated. We had to call a doctor. I remember telling my uncle that he could have been more careful with his words.

I think he was a little too direct.’ Within hours the family had been escorted by American police to a secret apartment in the Watergate complex, famous for the break-in that brought about the fall of President Richard Nixon. They spent the next few weeks under police guard before returning to Carlo’s home. ‘My mother never recovered from my father’s death,’ said Carlo. ‘She and my father had always dreamed of living near Lake Como. They were very close and she remained very attached to her dreams. ‘The following year, she suffered the first symptoms of Parkinson’s. I don’t think she got it as a direct result of my father’s murder – but surely it doesn’t help if you have lived through such a shock?’ Carlo’s quest for the truth began a month after his father’s death when a London inquest recorded a verdict of suicide. It was hardly a likely explanation. Six days before his death, Calvi had shaved off his moustache and skipped bail in Italy pending an appeal against a four-year suspended prison sentence for illegally transferring £18 million out of the country.

Fearing for his life, the 62-year-old banker chartered a private plane and fled to Britain on a false passport with Sardinian business tycoon Silvano Vittor, a long-term associate who assumed the role of bodyguard. He was taken to a safe house in Chelsea Cloisters, West London – believed to have been organised by another Sardinian businessman, Flavio Carboni. Calvi had already written to Pope John Paul II warning him of the imminent collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, saying that it would ‘provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage’. Roberto Calvi (back left), known as 'God's banker' because of close ties to the Vatican, with other top Italian financiers who appeared in court in 1981 charged with illegal export of funds abroad Calvi also had close links to the Mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra – a Mafia-like criminal organisation based in Naples – and the Masonic lodge P2.

The latter was described by Calvi’s former Banco Ambrosiano mentor, Sicilian Michele Sindona, as a ‘state within a state’ because of its powerful members, including former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Carlo refused to accept the 1982 inquest’s suicide verdict. He hired one of Britain’s best-known barristers, George Carman QC, to represent the family at a second hearing, which recorded an open verdict. Still not satisfied, he demanded that his father’s body was exhumed. Carlo then commissioned the independent forensic report, which concluded in October 2002 that his father had been murdered as the injuries to his neck were inconsistent with hanging, there was no trace of rust and paint on his shoes from the scaffolding and he had not touched the bricks in his pockets. In 2005, Vittor and Carboni were accused of killing Calvi. But the duo and three others – Mafia financier Pippo Calò, businessman Ernesto Diotallevi and Carboni’s girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig – were acquitted 20 months later.

Another name linked to Calvi’s murder was Mafia ‘supergrass’ Francesco Di Carlo, known as ‘Frankie the Strangler’. Determined: Carlo Calvi (pictured) has dedicated his life to seeking justice for his father According to Di Carlo, the killers were Vincenzo Casillo and Sergio Vaccari of the Naples Camorra. ‘Calvi was naming names,’ said Di Carlo. ‘No one had any trust in him any more. He owed a lot of money. His friends had all distanced themselves. Everyone wanted to get rid of him. I was in Rome and received a phone call from a friend in Sicily telling me that a certain high- ranking Mafia member had just been killed. ‘I will never forget the date because of this: it was June 16, 1982 – two days before Calvi was murdered. The friend told me that Pippo Calò was trying to get hold of me because he needed me to do something for him,’ Di Carlo claims. ‘When I finally spoke to Pippo, he told me not to worry, that the problem had been taken care of. ‘That’s a code we use in the Cosa Nostra. We never talk about killing someone.

We say they have been taken care of.’ Carlo Calvi believes that the supergrass is telling the truth. He agrees with Di Carlo that his father’s killers were Casillo – the second-in-command of the Camorra, who was murdered by a car bomb in Rome in 1983 – and his sidekick Vaccari, who was stabbed to death three months after Calvi’s murder. Vaccari was also a former tenant of Calvi’s last known home, the rented flat at Chelsea Cloisters. Carlo points out that both his father and Casillo had business cards belonging to Alvaro Giardili, a Camorra associate, in their possession when they died. ‘I’m not suggesting Alvaro Giardili was involved, but he definitely connects to some of the individuals involved in the case,’ Carlo said. ‘When my father died, he had Giardili’s business card in his wallet. ‘One of the first people to ring us when we returned to the house after my father died was Giardili. In general, I consider Di Carlo a reliable witness.

But I am more interested in what he has to say about the social network of the Italian underground in London during the Eighties.’ It is that underground movement that Carlo is now hoping will be exposed – even if his own safety is jeopardised. Calling for a third inquest, he said: ‘The police have already admitted it was murder but I would like to see the case reviewed in open court and the remaining defendants in their jurisdiction pursued. ‘When I lived in Italy I had bodyguards but now I have to rely on my own judgment and instinct. ‘There have been instances when I have been concerned for my safety but I try not to be confrontational and protect myself. ‘If the worst happens, I am not the only person who has this information. I will not rest until I find out the truth about my father’s death.’ Roberto Calvi | God | ZoomInfo.com Web References (200 Total References) It was the main shareholder of ...

[cached] It was the main shareholder of the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in 1982 amid accusations of ties to the Mafia, while its chairman Roberto Calvi -- dubbed "God's Banker" -- was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in a suspected murder by mobsters. LikeOrHate.com - List likeorhate.com [cached] Roberto Calvi Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 - 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker dubbed "God's Banker" by the press due to his close association with the Vatican. A native of Milan, Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, and his death in London in June 1982 has been the source of enduring controversy. Ambrosianos [cached] Ambrosianos president, Roberto Calvi, fled to London, accompanied by Flavio Carbone, considered the financial link between the Magliana gang and the Mafia. ... The prosecutors theory was simple: Calvi was killed because he lost the Mobs money. ...

The bank president: Roberto Calvi, the president of Milan's Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging in 1982 under a bridge in London. The most famous occasion was when ... [cached] The most famous occasion was when Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker", was found hanging from London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. Calvi was head of Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's largest private bank, which was part-owned by the Vatican. Roberto ... mafiatoday.com [cached] Roberto Calvi The Vatican's bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (the IOR), acquired a sulphurous reputation in the 1970s when its American head, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, went into business first with Michele Sindona, a Cosa Nostra-linked financier who would end up convicted of bankruptcy and murder, and then Roberto Calvi, who would be found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London following the fraudulent collapse of his Banco Ambrosiano. ... It was Calvi, Gelli said, whose Banco Ambrosiano had been squeezed to finance anti-communist operations, including subsidising the Polish trade union, Solidarity. ...

In June 1982, Ambrosiano's former chairman, Roberto Calvi - dubbed "God's banker" by the Italian press - was found hanging under London's Blackfriars Bridge in a death that was ruled a homicide and has yet to be solved. Similar Profiles 'God's banker' found hanged - Blackfriars Bridge, London, UK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com you are not logged in. [log in] 'God's banker' found hanged - Blackfriars Bridge, London, UK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com Welcome to Waymarking.com! We hope you've been able to find what you are looking for. We would also like to encourage you to take some time to browse some of the other aspects of our site. We recommend viewing our featured waymarks , or perhaps the newest waymarks . You can also create a free membership to track your progress online and share your locations with others.

Click here to view the complete waymark directory N 51° 30.589 W 000° 06.273 30U E 700918 N 5710496 Quick Description: In 1982 a man's body was found hanging from one of the arches of Blackfriars Bridge. Investigations revealed the man was Roberto Calvi who had the nickname "God's Banker". Initially the death was treated as suicide but later became a murder case. Location: London, United Kingdom Date Posted: 4/23/2013 12:29:26 PM Waymark Code: WMGY87 The article on the BBC website reports that: " 'God's banker' found hanged The body of a top Italian banker has been found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. Known as God's banker for his links with the Vatican, 62-year-old Roberto Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano in Milan and a central figure in a complex web of international fraud and intrigue.

He had been missing for the last nine days before his body was discovered by a passer-by hanging from scaffolding on a riverside walk under the bridge. Police are treating the death as suicide. Jail sentence Mr Calvi became chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, now Italy's largest private bank, in 1975 and built up a vast financial empire. In 1978, a report by the Bank of Italy on Ambrosiano concluded that several billion lire had been illegally exported. In May 1981, Mr Calvi was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but released pending an appeal. During his short spell in jail he attempted suicide. Mr Calvi was due to appear in an Italian court next week to appeal against this conviction. Later this month he was to be tried for alleged fraud involving property deals with Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, who is himself serving 25 years in America over the collapse of the Franklin National Bank in New York in 1974. The Vatican is directly linked to Mr Calvi by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the Pope's bodyguard, a governor of the Vatican and head of the Vatican bank which has a shareholding in Ambrosiano.

Missing millions Now Ambrosiano is on the verge of collapse amid press reports that investigators found a £400m "hole" in its accounts. Last week the bank's executive board decided to strip Mr Calvi of his authority. The Italian Treasury dissolved the bank's administration and the Bank of Italy is now a temporary commissioner. Mr Calvi fled to Venice nine days ago after shaving his moustache to avoid being recognised. From there it seems he hired a private plane to take him to London. The day before he was found dead, his secretary committed suicide in Milan by jumping off the fourth floor of the bank's headquarters. Teresa Corrocher, aged 55, left an angry suicide note condemning her boss for the damage she said he had done to Ambrosiano and its employees." The Guardian website reported on 12th May 2012 that" "Mafia boss breaks silence over Roberto Calvi killing Godfather turned supergrass accused of murder of 'God's banker' claims case will never be solved.

One month before the 30th anniversary of one of London's most enduring murder mysteries, the mafia godfather at the heart of the case has spoken for the first time about why he believes the real killers of Italian financier Roberto Calvi will never be brought to justice. Calvi, dubbed "God's banker" because of his work with the Vatican, was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars bridge in London on 18 June 1982. Bricks had been stuffed in his pockets and he had more than £10,000 in cash on him. In the months before his death he had been accused of stealing millions being laundered on behalf of the mafia. His death was originally ruled a suicide but later judged to be murder. In July 1991, Francesco "Frankie the Strangler" Di Carlo, a mafia godfather who had lived in England since the late 1970s, was named as Calvi's killer by a supergrass. Di Carlo has since become a supergrass himself. Speaking from the small town in central Italy where he now lives, Di Carlo related how he first came to hear that he had been accused of Calvi's murder.

"I was in university – that's what I called the prisons in England. We were all in the association room watching television when the news came on that the killer of Calvi was Francesco Di Carlo. All the prisoners and guards looked over and stared. I just shrugged my shoulders and said that they must be talking about someone else with the same name as me." Di Carlo seemed a likely suspect. He had arrived in the UK in the 1970s, relocating shortly after being linked to the murders of two Sicilian police officers. He bought businesses and a palatial home but soon came under the watchful eye of British customs, who believed he had moved in order to oversee the Cosa Nostra's operations in the UK. Between 1980 and 1985 customs officers allegedly linked him to at least a dozen multimillion pound drug hauls, only a handful of which were intercepted. In 1985 Palermo's flying squad attempted to extradite Di Carlo to Italy in connection with an earlier case. Within weeks of the request, the deputy head of the squad and a commissioner in charge of tracking down fugitives had both been shot dead.

Di Carlo was eventually linked to an attempt to smuggle £60m worth of heroin to Canada through London and was found guilty at a five-month trial at the Old Bailey, although he claims to have been the victim of a conspiracy. The police officers escorting him to court each morning told how, as they were led from the cells, Di Carlo's co-defendants would bow and kiss his hand as they passed him, standard protocol for greeting a senior godfather figure. Although Di Carlo denies killing Calvi, he admits that he and his mafia colleagues wanted him dead and that his boss had attempted to contact him to carry out the hit. "I was in Rome and received a phone call from a friend in Sicily telling me that a certain high-ranking mafia member had just been killed. I will never forget the date because of this: it was 16 June 1982 – two days before Calvi was murdered. The friend told me that Pippo Calò [known as the "mafia's cashier"] was trying to get hold of me because he needed me to do something for him. In the hierarchy of Cosa Nostra, he was a general, I was a colonel, so he was a little higher up, my superior.

"While I finally spoke to Pippo, he told me not to worry, that the problem had been taken care of. That's a code we use in the Cosa Nostra. We never talk about killing someone. We say they have been taken care of. "Calvi was naming names. No one had any trust in him any more. He owed a lot of money. His friends had all distanced themselves. Everyone wanted to get rid of him. He had been arrested and he had started to talk. Then he had tried to kill himself by cutting his wrists. He was released, but knew he could be rearrested at any time. He was weak, he was a broken man. "I was not the one who hanged Calvi. One day I may write the full story, but the real killers will never be brought to justice because they are being protected by the Italian state, by members of the P2 masonic lodge. They have massive power. They are made up of a mixture of politicians, bank presidents, the military, top security and so on. This is a case that they continue to open and close again and again but it will never be resolved.

The higher you go, the less evidence you will find." Di Carlo became disillusioned with the direction the organisation was taking, deciding to become a supergrass. "My grandfather was the first to be in the Cosa Nostra and the rest of my family followed. Back then the system was different. We were a guarantee for people who had no justice, we were there for the defence of the weak. "We were not against the state, we were a state within the state. We had solicitors, doctors, ministers. We would get the politicians elected and we would command them. And we made a comfortable living. There were rules. You could not kill women or children or innocents. You could not kill journalists because they were just doing their job. "If you wanted to kill someone, there had to be a reason. They had to be harming the organisation. You could kill a policeman because he was lying about you, but not for doing his job. You kill one, another comes along, so what have you achieved? Nothing. "But then things started to change. Drug trafficking came in and made people very rich. People had too much money and power. The scruples were lost. Magistrates were being bombed along with women and children.

It wasn't Cosa Nostra any more, it was Cosa Monster. I didn't want to be a part of that so I decided to turn. My life now is very different, very quiet, but I am happy."" Type of publication: Television When was the article reported?: 6/19/1982 Publication: BBC website BBC NEWS | UK | First UK arrest over Calvi murder First UK arrest over Calvi murder Roberto Calvi was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London British police probing the 1982 murder of "God's banker" Roberto Calvi have made their first arrest. A 42-year-old woman has been questioned on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and perjury. She was freed on bail until February. The allegations are thought to concern testimony at an inquest into the death of Mr Calvi, who was found hanged under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. He had been chairman of the bankrupt Vatican-linked Banco Ambrosiano. Inquests Mr Calvi, 62, was found hanged with bricks in his pockets and ï¿½15,000 in cash.

He had disappeared during a huge investigation into Banco Ambrosiano, once Italy's biggest privately-owned bank. An inquest recorded a verdict of suicide but a second recorded an open verdict. In September this year, City of London Police reopened their investigation as a murder inquiry. Since then, they have worked closely with the Italian authorities, who have identified four suspects, including a Mafia boss. Forensic Mr Calvi's family believes his death was linked to an organised criminal conspiracy. Police are carrying out new forensic tests on the scaffolding poles from which his body was found hanging and on glasses and the money found on him. Detective Superintendent Trevor Smith, who recently returned from Italy, said: "We have been applying 21st Century forensic and investigative techniques to a 21-year-old crime - and we have been working closely with our Italian counterparts.

"As a result of these investigations, we have today arrested a woman, and have questioned her in relation to events surrounding Mr Calvi's murder in 1982." Anniversaries | The Times Published at 12:00AM, June 18 2005 TODAY EVENTS: In 1429 the English were defeated by Joan of Arc at Patay; in 1583 the first life insurance policy, on the life of William Gybbons, was issued in London; in 1812 the United States declared war against Britain; in 1982 Roberto Calvi, who had been chairman of the Italian Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London; in 1996, as the US Senate’s Whitewater committee issued its final report, Republicans and Democrats remained divided over whether the Clintons had committed any ethical breaches; in 1999, at a summit in Cologne, the Group of Seven (G7) countries Subscribe now BBC NEWS | Europe | Five acquitted over Calvi death Five acquitted over Calvi death Calvi's body was found hanging from a London bridge in 1982 A court in Rome has acquitted all

 five defendants of murder charges in the 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker" for his Vatican ties.

Mr Calvi, the chairman of a private Italian bank, Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from scaffolding under London's Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. A British inquest ruled the death suicide, but the case was reopened at the insistence of Mr Calvi's family. Mr Calvi died as his bank collapsed in one of Italy's largest fraud scandals. City of London Police, who initially investigated Mr Calvi's death, said it was "disappointing for Roberto Calvi's family in particular that those responsible for his murder have still not faced justice".

CALVI KEY DATES 1971: Becomes chairman of Banco Ambrosiano 1981: Convicted of corruption, but bailed pending appeal 11 June 1982: Leaves Italy with a suitcase of documents 18 June 1982: Body found July 1982: Suicide verdict July 1983: Open verdict at second inquest 1998: Calvi's body exhumed Oct 2002: Forensic report says Calvi murdered July 2003: Italian prosecutors name four suspects Sept 2003: City of London Police re-open investigation Mar 2004: Four appear at pre-trial hearing in Rome April 2005: Four people charged with murder in Italy October 2005: Murder trial opens in Italy June 2007: Rome jury acquits five defendants Mystery of Calvi's death In a statement, the City of London Police said they had "worked closely with the Italian authorities since 2003 to bring this case to a successful conclusion." Cleared of murder charges are Giuseppe Calo, alleged to be a cashier for the Sicilian Mafia;

 Mr Calvi's close associate, businessman Flavio Carboni; businessman Ernesto Diotallevi; Mr Calvi's bodyguard and driver Silvano Vittor; and Mr Carboni's ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig.

Calo has been in prison since the 1980s on Mafia charges unrelated to Mr Calvi's death. Prosecutors had said Ms Kleinszig should be acquitted due lack of evidence but had asked for life sentences for the other four. The prosecution alleged that they lured Mr Calvi to London and into the hands of his murderers. Unanswered questions Mr Calvi was linked to the Vatican bank, and prosecutors also said he was laundering money for the Mafia. Mob bosses feared he knew where their money was going and where it was hidden and was preparing to tell all, prosecutors said. In June 1982, his private bank collapsed with debts of $1.5bn (ï¿½750m). An investigation began in Italy but, a few days later, Calvi's body was hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. Cash and stones were stuffed into his pockets. The first inquest ruled it was suicide but years later his body was exhumed, revealing clues suggesting he had been murdered. Forensic tests conducted in 2003 concluded there was no evidence on Mr Calvi's shoes and clothing that he had climbed the scaffolding, indicating he had been killed elsewhere.

The two-year trial leaves more questions than answers, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome. The defence suggested more than once that there were plenty of others who had a motive for murder - some of them within the Vatican - and they said any number of these parties could have collaborated and silenced Roberto Calvi. June 19, 1982: Conspiracy reigns supreme as 'God's banker' is found hanged in London - BT June 19, 1982: Conspiracy reigns supreme as 'God's banker' is found hanged in London The discovery of a body hanging under Blackfriars Bridge sparked an enduring murder mystery complete with conspiracy theories that involved the mafia, the Vatican and a future Italian leader. Print this story In a moment that would spark one of the enduring mysteries of our times, the body of a man in an expensive suit was spotted hanging from Blackfriars Bridge on this day in 1982. The dapper victim turned out to Italian banker Roberto Calvi, the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, the country’s biggest private bank whose main shareholder happened to be the Vatican.

Calvi - dubbed 'God's Banker' on account of his organisation's close ties with the Holy See - had been removed from his post on the day before his death amid dark rumours of creative accountancy, links with clandestine groups and secret political slush funds. Indeed, Calvi had been on the run from the law at the time of his demise. He had fled Italy nine days earlier after being handed a four-year suspended sentence for transferring $27 million out of the country in violation of national currency laws. But it seems that Italian police were not the only ones keen to catch up with the fugitive financier. At the time of Calvi's death, Banco Ambrosiano was on the verge of collapse with debts of almost half a billion pounds - and not all of its creditors were seraphs. There's evidence to suggest that the bank laundered drug money for the Sicilian Mafia, and it is understood that both Calvi and his bank were intimately involved in Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge dedicated to serving the interests of the Italian establishment. The Catholic Church also had reason to fear Calvi's testimony.

It is alleged that the Vatican Bank used Banco Ambrosiano to funnel US money to a host of irregular organisations, including the Solidarity movement in Poland and the Contras of Nicaragua. From this tangled web of intrigue, observers were able to form a disorderly queue of suspects. But it took British police just one week to decide that Calvi had taken his own life.They found no evidence of a struggle. What they did find was bricks in his pockets, over $15,000 in his wallet and a Patek Philippe watch on his wrist. Nothing pointed to a 'hit'; assassins would have made off with his possessions. What's more, Calvi had history, having attempted suicide following his arrest in Italy. But Calvi’s widow Carla and son Carlo (below, in London for the 1983 inquest) were not convinced. Their challenge sparked a second inquest. Held in London in 1983, it delivered an open verdict on the death, ruling that there was no way of knowing whether Calvi had killed himself or been killed by others. Buoyed by this element of doubt, Carlo Calvi forged on.

He hired private investigators who in 1992 concluded that the banker could not have clambered up the bridge's scaffolding because his shoes were devoid of any trace of paint or rust. They also found that the Thames was at high tide at the exact time of Calvi's death. This meant that a person standing in a boat would have been able to reach the spot where the body was found hanging. The evidence failed to force a third British inquest, but Italian authorities were intrigued. Calvi's body was exhumed in 1998 and a detailed forensic report was published in 2002. It concluded that the banker's neck showed no evidence of the injuries usually associated with death by hanging. More damningly still, his hands never touched the bricks found in the pockets. Italian judges concluded that the banker had not taken his own life, and in October 2005 five people went on trial in Rome for his murder. The defendants were Sardinian financier Flavio Carboni, his former girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig, Roman entrepreneur Ernesto Diotallevi, Calvi's former bodyguard, Silvano Vittor, and convicted Mafia 'cashier' Giuseppe Calo.

But, after hearing 20 months of evidence, the presiding judge threw out the charges, citing "insufficient evidence". A separate case was made against Licio Gelli, the grand master of Propaganda Due. Despite acknowledging, on oath, that the financier was murdered, Gelli was acquitted of any involvement, "insufficient evidence" again key to the ruling. With all avenues now seemingly exhausted, the death of Roberto Calvi looks set to go down in history as the perfect murder. Will we ever discover who killed 'God's Banker'? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below. The death of Roberto Calvi - Did you know? Calvi's death came the day after his secretary was found dead after allegedly jumping off the fourth floor of the bank's headquarters. In a remarkable display of corporate pride, a suicide note found at the scene blamed Calvi for bringing shame on the bank and its employees. When Banco Ambrosiano collapsed, the Vatican Bank agreed to pay $224 million to 120 of its creditors, citing a “recognition of moral involvement” in the collapse. Banco Ambrosiano was not the first bank to have caused problems for the Vatican.

The Holy See lost an estimated $30 million when bad loans caused the collapse of Franklin National Bank in 1974. The failed bank's owner, Sicilian-born financier Michele Sindona, died in a prison after drinking coffee laced with cyanide. Calvi's main contact in the Vatican was Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Bank - and director of Ambrosiano Overseas. The American was sought for questioning in connection with Calvi's death but was granted immunity as a Vatican employee. Francesco Di Carlo, a member of the Mafia who turned state witness, maintains Giuseppe Calo approached him about making the 'hit' on Calvi. By the time the two convened to discuss the details, Di Carlo claims to have been told that the order had been executed by others, namely Camorra members Vincenzo Casillo and Sergio Vaccari. Both men were later murdered themselves. Members of Propaganda Due (which included a young Silvio Berlusconi) referred to themselves as 'frati neri' - black friars. It remains to be seen whether this is in any way connected to the site of Calvi's very public demise.

In the 1990 film The Godfather Part III, the character of Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig is based on Calvi. In the film Keinszig is also found hanged from a bridge after he tried to swindle the Corleone family out of hundreds of millions of dollars. God's banker linked to Pablo Escobar - Telegraph Italy God's banker linked to Pablo Escobar A Vatican banker found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in 1982 had previously undisclosed links to the notorious Colombian drug smuggler, Pablo Escobar, the author of a new book has claimed. Banker Roberto Calvi Photo: REUTERS Nick Squires in Rome 3:46PM GMT 26 Nov 2012 Roberto Calvi, who earned his nickname for his close ties to the Vatican Bank, was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London amid strong suspicions that he was murdered. Ayda Suarez Levy, the widow of a Bolivian druglord, claims that Calvi was laundering drug cartel money through an account in Nassau, in the Bahamas, on behalf of South American drug lords.

The Cocaine King sheds new light on Calvi's death, which remains one of the Vatican's darkest chapters and most contested mysteries. Mrs Levy, the widow of Roberto Suarez Gomez, claimed in an interview on Italian television on Monday that Mr Calvi was her husband's "Italian contact". "He said he could vouch for us," she told Italy's Channel Seven television. "He said by vouching for us at such a high level, business would go well for us. I imagine he was talking about cocaine. He was not explicit but I imagine that is what it was about." Ms Levy recounted an encounter involving her husband and Gunter Sachs, a multi-millionaire German playboy who was the third husband of Brigitte Bardot. She said that six months before Calvi's death, she and her husband met Mr Sachs on a trip to Switzerland and they discussed the Italian banker.

Mr Sachs, who committed suicide in his Swiss chalet last year at the age of 78, reportedly told the Bolivian drug baron: "Calvi is very scared because Pablo Escobar wants his money back from the bank in Nassau." The Bahamas bank that he was referring to was an affiliate of Banco Ambrosiano, which was Italy's biggest private bank when it collapsed in 1982. It was headed by Mr Calvi, who had close ties to the Vatican's bank, formally known as the Istituto per le Opere di Religion – the Institute for Religious Works. The claims made in the book could "completely revolutionise the interpretation of Calvi's death," said Philip Willan, the author of "The Last Supper – The Mafia, the Masons and the killing of Roberto Calvi". Until now the speculation was that Calvi was murdered by the Cosa Nostra mafia of Sicily, possibly with complicity by Italian politicians or the Vatican itself. "If Escobar wanted his money back and Calvi was not able to pay it, he would have had a motive to kill Calvi.

There is evidence suggesting that Calvi may have had direct links to the laundering of drug money in the Caribbean," said Mr Willan. The evidence was enough to persuade the US Customs Service to launch an investigation into the alleged laundering of $34 million through the Bahamas affiliate of the Banco Ambrosiano in the late 1980s. In 1988 Suarez Gomez, the Bolivian drug trafficker, was given a 15 year prison sentence for drug crimes, but was released in 1996. By then he had accumulated a huge fortune. His widow recounts in the book how his men produced around two tons of cocaine paste in jungle laboratories in Bolivia each day and then sent it to Escobar's Medellin cartel. At the height of its power, the cartel, headed by Escobar, was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine into the US each day.

Question: Who was the chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano, found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge, London in 1982?
Answer: Roberto Calvi